Researchers discover the first evidence of the use of controlled fire 250,000 years ago in a Madrid site

June 22 () –

The Valdocarros II site in Arganda del Rey (Madrid), formed about 250,000 years ago, houses the “oldest” evidence of the use and control of fire, according to research carried out by the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) and the Herriot Watt University of Edinburgh (United Kingdom), and published in ‘Nature Scientific Reports’.

“It constitutes one of the few examples of fires controlled by species prior to Homo neanderthalensis recorded in Europe.and it is one of the oldest testimonies of the use of fire in the open air in a Lower Paleolithic site with Acheulean technology -in which large lithic tools that resemble hand axes predominate- in Europe and the only one in the Iberian Peninsula “, has assured one of the directors of the investigation of the Joaquín Panera deposit.

To carry out the study, lipid biomarkers were analyzed in sediment remains from the deposit, which revealed the presence of thermally altered organic elements, such as wood, bone or meat, and the temperatures they reached.

For the first time, the use of dry pine branches has been found in Paleolithic homes, which in an environment where this species was scarce implies “extensive knowledge of the environment”. Fatty acids found in homes show that in Valdocarros II meat was “cooked”, perhaps from deer (Cervus elaphus) or aurochs (Bos primigenius) of which abundant bone remains have been found at the site.

In addition, the discovery of polyaromatic hydrocarbons, which are products of incomplete combustion, reveals that the pine burned at temperatures of about 350 degrees -low compared to the 800 degrees that the uncontrolled fires of the Pleistocene reached – for short periods, which “favors the cooking of the meatsince high-temperature fires tend to char and burn food on the outside before the inside has reached a temperature that makes it easy to eat.”

IMPORTANCE OF FIRE IN HUMAN EVOLUTION

“The hominids at this site show all the necessary requirements to control fire: the use of specific resources such as dry pine wood; specific activities, such as making low-temperature fires used for cooking; and intention, as is implicit in the transport of dry pine wood and the remains of large mammals to a specific place where they were dismembered and cooked”, highlights the co-director of the research and professor at the UCM, Susana Rubio Jara.

The research has been funded by the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI), the European Regional Development Fund, and the Community of Madrid. Heriot-Watt University has financed the geochemical investigation of sediment samples from the Valdocarros II reservoir.

In the next phase of the project, stone tools found near homes will be studied to identify whether they were used in particular ways to cut meat or process plants.

The researchers recall that around 300,000 years ago, Homo sapiens emerged in Africa and Neanderthals emerged in Europe, with a “more efficient” technology for making lithic tools, which coexisted for tens of thousands of years with the Acheulean until this vanishes without knowing why, which constitutes “one of the most relevant challenges of the investigation of human origins”.

“In this way, the discovery of fire control by groups with Acheulean technology in Valdocarros II contributes significantly to the understanding of the end of this period that lasts for more than a million and a half years, by ruling out the controlled use of fire as a disadvantage against Neanderthal groups, who would end up imposing their hegemony, remaining the only human species until the arrival of Homo sapiens some 40,000 years ago. years,” they conclude.